South Korea’s Park Tae-hwan competes in the men’s 400m freestyle heat during the swimming event at the 31st Summer Olympic Games at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 6, 2016. Park, the 2008 Olympic gold medalist, finished 10th overall in the heats in 3:45.63, missing out on the final, which is open to the top eight qualifiers. (Yonhap)

It is about time the US Army reassessed its body composition standards because I have seen too many fit troops be considered “fat” over the years due to the tape test.  There has to be a better way of determining who is really fat:

For the first time in 14 years, the military is rewriting its body composition standards and the methods used to determine whether troops are too fat to serve.

Pentagon officials intend to publish a new policy later this year, a document expected to have sweeping effects on how the military defines and measures health and fitness. The review comes amid rising concern about obesity. Among civilians, it is shrinking the pool of qualified prospective recruits. And in the active-duty force, a rising number of overweight troops poses risks to readiness and health care costs.

“You can look around and see all the soldiers that are pushing that belly,” said Dr. David Levitsky, a professor of nutritional science and human ecology at Cornell University who has studied military nutrition and obesity. “They have to do something about it.”  (…………….)

Medical experts say the BMI is flawed at each end of the spectrum. It unfairly penalizes weight lifters and other athletic people who are healthy but have a lot of muscle mass that increases their weight. And the BMI test can fail to catch unfit troops who are naturally tall and thin.

“When you have groups of individuals who are fit and highly trained, then BMI is absolutely useless,” said Dr. Dympna Gallagher, the director of the body composition unit at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center.  [Military Times]

You can read the whole thing at the link, but I have always felt that the physical fitness test should be the determining factor if someone is unfit for service.  From what I have seen generally people who are truly fat have a hard time passing the PT test.

Via a reader tip comes this article about a guy that clearly has some mental issues if he thinks Pyongyang is country worth emulating:

North Korea may be isolated in the international community but it now has a modest ally on the Spanish coast — the Pyongyang Cafe, a small bar founded to support Kim Jong-Un’s strongman rule.

Located in the Mediterranean city of Tarragona where Roman ruins vie for attention, the establishment sports a huge North Korean flag behind the bar, where tea typical from the country and Asian beers are served.

Socialist propaganda posters brought all the way from Pyongyang adorn the walls of the modern bar, and in a corner stands a bookshelf full of works by leaders of the Kim dynasty that has ruled North Korea since 1948, translated into Spanish.

“North Korea is the world’s big unknown,” says Alejandro Cao de Benos, founder of the bar that opened mid-July and also president of the Korean Friendship Association, which has delegates in more than 30 countries and is officially recognised by Pyongyang.

While North Korean restaurants complete with traditional food and dancing have popped up across Asia, the 41-year-old says this is the only such Western establishment.

A restaurant opened in Amsterdam in 2012, but closed several months later.

“We want to break with all the myths, manipulation. And as not many people can go to Korea, because it’s complicated and far, they can come to our cafe,” says Cao de Benos.  [AFP]

You can read more at the link, but Benos claims to be a communist; you would think he would have realized by now that North Korea is not a communist regime.  It is an authoritarian dictatorship that rules with a personality cult.

More of the typical North Korean rhetoric in response to the US deployment of B-1 bombers to Guam which I have assume is in preparation for the upcoming UFG exercise in Korea where North Korea always seems to act up:

North Korea has accused Washington of planning a pre-emptive nuclear strike, after the US announced it would deploy its B-1 bomber in the Pacific for the first time in a decade.

The strategic aircraft were to be deployed on Saturday on the US island of Guam, the US military said last month, describing the operation as a routine rotation with the B-52 bomber.

Tensions have been running high since North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test in January, followed by a barrage of missile launches that this month reached Japanese waters directly for the first time.

Pyongyang accused Washington of “becoming all the more pronounced in their moves to topple down the DPRK by mobilizing all nuclear war hardware,” using North Korea’s official title.

“The enemies are bluffing that they can mount a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK by letting fly B-1B over the Korean peninsula within two-three hours in contingency,” said an English-language statement on state media.

“Such moves for bolstering nuclear force exposes again that the US imperialists are making a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the DPRK a fait accompli.”  [AFP]

You can read more at the link.

Transnational unification! Soju leading the way https://t.co/y3VpP0R1pL

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) August 3, 2016

South Korean judoka Jeong Bo-kyeong bites her silver medal as she stands on the podium during the medal ceremony for the women’s under-48kg at the 31st Summer Olympic Games at Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 5, 2016. Jeong won silver for South Korea’s first medal at the Rio Games. She lost to Paula Pareto of Argentina in the final. (Yonhap)

The real question though is why the UNICEF giving a country that can afford its own self proclaimed space program, nuclear weapons and ICBMs any money at all?  Clearly the Kim regime has the resources to care for these children, but instead diverts these resources to their weapons programs and lets UNICEF pick up the bill:

A United Nations agency almost halved its budget for medical assistance and childcare projects in North Korea, a U.S. based media outlet reported Saturday.

According to the Voice of America (VOA), the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) has earmarked a total of US$71 million for such projects during the 2017-2021 period, sharply cut from the $120 million set up for the 2011-2015 period.

The sharp reduction in the budget for North Korea-related humanitarian projects came as a result of international sanctions against the communist state.  [Yonhap]

If US fast food workers think they have it bad with the US minimum at $7.25 an hour look at what their counterparts in Korea get paid:

The government announced on Friday the newly raised hourly minimum wage for next year.

According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the government will raise the hourly minimum wage by 7.3 percent from 6,030 won ($5.43) this year to 6,470 won starting at the beginning of next year.

“We accepted formal objections starting from July 21 to Monday, and we didn’t receive any from the labor representatives,” said Kwon Chang-joon, a director at the ministry. “We did receive a petition from the Korean Federation of Micro Enterprise but decided that there is no need for further consideration after reviewing various laws and decision-making processes by the Minimum Wage Commission with labor and business sectors.”    [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Please leave anything you want to discuss in the comments section.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/761045898121977856